Reconciliation
Considering current temperaments,
Has reconciliation a chance?
Is there a place for benevolence
Or will belligerence be the stance?
An examination of hate
Is now in order.
Not a time to be blate
Not a time to stand at the border.
Someone must make
The first move
For the sake
Of calm to improve.
With
malice toward none,
With
charity for all,
The Great Man who won,
Made the first Reconciliation call.
And, it was General Grant at Appomattox
Courthouse who
(Received the Confederate sons
And the surrendered Lee too)
Released the southern boys with their
guns.
One hundred years later
General Lee’s amnesty oath was
found.
The House and Senate sought the greater,
Higher ground.
Gerald Ford, the President concurred,
Lee’s citizenship was restored.
This action should not be obscured,
But observed as a burial of the sword.
And then there was Mother Emanuel
On
that June night in Charleston
When nine worshipers in an instant knew
well
They would die from a small gun.
Afterwards, the brothers and sisters
Of Mother Emanuel prayed and embraced
God’s love. Not as resistors
But with forgiveness, that evil deed they
erased.
To forgive and to reconcile is not an
Impossible task to achieve.
Sometimes difficult and complicated to
plan,
It still requires the first step to
believe.
August 18, 2017